CoDevelopment Canada invites you to join us on Saturday, June 9th (doors at 5:30pm) for CoDev’s annual fundraising dinner at the Maritime Labour Centre (1880 Triumph St). Come celebrate 27 years of building partnerships between like-minded organizations, in Canada and Latin America, to empower women, foster Canadian-Latin American partnerships and strengthen civil society.

It will be an evening of great food, good friends, fantastic entertainment, and our popular silent and dessert auctions!

This year we are thrilled to be joined by guest speaker Julia Sanchez, President-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. We also welcome back Vancouver’s best MC, Charlie Demers, and for those of you who joined us at our 2011 AGM you’ll be familiar with the musical sounds of the talented Téjota!

Tickets for this fantastic event, which sells out every year, are available now! Tickets are $60 each or $25 for low income.

Contact us via email or telephone (604.708.1495) purchase your ticket.

We appreciate your help in getting this information widely distributed, and also welcome donations for the popular silent auction. Suggestions for the silent auction include the loan of cabins, sailboat trips, professional services, dinners, artwork etc. Please contact us if you have an item you would like to donate. Deadline to donate is May 31st.

Thank you and we you hope you will join us to celebrate the work of CoDev and our partners!

International Forum on Liberating Pedagogies and Resistance to Neo-liberalism

Educator and student activists from 20 countries will gather in Vancouver April 12-13 to participate in the “Teaching for Transformation” (T4T) Forum on Liberating Pedagogies.

Fanny Sequeira & Luzmilla Sanchez, FOMCA, will both be in Vancouver for T4T

The T4T forum, organized by the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA), provides an opportunity for supporters of transformative public education to share experiences, tactics and approaches for the creation of democratic classrooms that encourage critical thinking and empower students as active and inclusive citizens.

IDEA is an-Americas-wide network of organizations that share a commitment to protecting and improving public education, seen as essential to democratic development and the protection of human rights. IDEA has been a CoDev partner since 1999 and Steve Stewart, CoDev Program Director is also the Technical Secretary for IDEA. Along with Canadian Partners (BCTF and CIDA,) CoDev supports IDEA’s work of building an Americas-wide movement of public education defenders armed with the research background and grassroots support needed to advance effective, democratic and universal public education systems throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The T4T forum will examine the impact of neo-liberal economic and social policies on education and pedagogical practices, and frame alternatives to these policies. The focus is on understanding the nature of neo-liberal education policies in different parts of the globe, their impact, forms of resistance, and pedagogical alternatives that are empowering and emancipating.

Approxiamtely have of the forum partiicants will be representaitevs of Latin American organizations. Simultaneous Spanish-English translation will be provided.

The structure of the seminar will be panels of presentations, followed by working sessions in two languages.

This seminar precedes the conference of the American Education Research Association being held in Vancouver, Canada, from April 14-17, 2012.

The number of participants for IDEA’s forum, being held at the BCTF, is limited by the need for simultaneous translation. However, IDEA is also hosting a public event with panelists from the T4T forum that is open to everyone. The public event takes place at 7 PM, Thursday April 12 at the BC Teachers’ Federation building (100-550 W. 6th Ave, Van.).  Can’t make it in-person? The panel will be live streamed starting at 7pm PST!

To register for the full forum  visit the IDEA website, and for more information please e-mail us or call 604.708.1495 x112.

Hosted by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation

#T4T

CoDev’s Nicaraguan partner, MEC (Maria Elena Cuadra Movement of Employed and Unemployed Women) and the wider women’s movement in Nicaragua achieved a significant victory in January 2012 when the National Assembly voted to bring into legislation a Law Against Violence Against Women.

In 1994 MEC began by educating women maquila workers about their rights as both workers and women. They quickly realized, however, that without a legislative framework and accompanying legal mechanisms, women’s rights would never be fully protected and so began their efforts to bring change to Nicaragua’s laws. The legal reforms that they have developed are borne out of women’s experience and reflect women’s aspirations for equality.

The changes they have achieved in the past include revisions to the Labour code to include clauses specific to the maquila factories; and a law guaranteeing equal opportunities for women.

None of these changes have come easily but MEC has persisted and gained important public support for their campaigns and advocacy along the way.

At the start of their campaign to achieve the Law Against Violence Against Women, Nicaraguan women presented a proposal for the law to the National Assembly with the signatures of 12,000 women from around the country! They went on to organize forums, marches and meetings. In late January they rallied for three days outside the National Assembly in order to keep the pressure on the legislators and to ensure that the entire bill passed.

According to MEC’s website, for the first time in Nicaragua’s history a law spells out and condemns all forms of violence against women, including the crime of femicide. MEC Director, Sandra Ramos said that the law is dedicated to the 800 women who have been murdered in the last ten years in Nicaragua.

We were thrilled when we received a call from Canada’s History magazine asking if they could interview someone for their Canadians and the World segment. We immediately put them in touch with Julia Goulden, one of CoDev’s co-founders. We really appreciate their interest in our work and the role it has played over almost three decades in building partnerships for global justice.

Visit the Canada’s History website to listen to the audio of Julia Goulden’s interview.

In the February-March 2012 issue of Canada’s History, Joanna Dawson and Beverley Tallon enlightened us about seven Canadians who have made a difference (see page 59). As part of our Canadians and the World online extensions, we introduce you to: Julia Goulden.

Special education teacher Julia Goulden founded CoDevelopment Canada in 1985 after seeing a stirring photograph in a daily newspaper. The photo, which showed a group of female teachers raising their arms against a crowd of police, moved Goulden to foster a partnership between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and an organization of teachers in Peru.

This was CoDev’s first project and 26 years later, CoDevelopment Canada has far exceeded Goulden’s initial expectations. “Initially it was a very small organization that basically worked in the education sector. Over the 26 years, we’ve really engaged other unions. It’s just grown that more people are involved, more organizations see themselves in solidarity with us,” explained Goulden. “That was always the goal from the beginning. Over the years, it has progressively grown larger and has evolved.”

Today, CoDev partners with 17 Canadian organizations in a range of Latin American countries. CoDev supports such initiatives as gender equality in Central American education, labour rights in the Maquila garment industry, and grass-roots human rights initiatives for Colombian public sector workers.

After 25 years of service with CoDevelopment Canada, Julia Goulden stepped down from CoDev’s board in 2010. Julia recently spoke with Katherine Dow, Editorial Intern at Canada’s History Magazine about her work with CoDev.

–Katherine Dow

For the 11th year CoDev is thrilled to be hosting the Vancouver stop of the World Community Film Festival on Feb 10-12, 2012 at Langara College. This unique festival of amazing documentaries is curated by one of our Canadian Partners, the World Community Development Education Society in Courtenay, and is BC’s largest social justice film festival.

The festival’s mandate is to gather Vancouver’s diverse social justice community to a festival that allows for reflection, provides a forum for discussion and prompts participants to action. While the issues are often difficult, we feel it is important to provide tools and ideas for solutions.

The films at the festival act as tools for awareness, analysis, action and collaboration. They allow us to gain an understanding of others’ perspectives, explore new ideas and engage in conversations.  We hope these films will spark dialogue within your communities and provide possibilities to get involved, or to deepen our involvement, with issues that matter to you.

What’s great about the 2012 festival?

• Two days packed with great films
• An opening lecture with Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth
• A Sat night film that’s Louder Than a Bomb
• One of our Latin American partners – Berenice Celeyta/NOMADESC – is the feature of the film Defensora
• A very affordable weekend pass for $35 + many types of discounts
• If you’re interested in a particular issue we’ve listed our films by theme
• After watching a film you can find out how to get involved by visiting the social justice bazaar where many local organizations will have information tables
• We have a number of filmmakers joining us for the festival including David Lavallee, the director of White Water Black Gold, Faroe Des Roche from The Pipedreams  Project, Richard Boyce, the director of Rainforest, and Grant Baldwin and Jen Rustemeyer from The Clean Bin Project.
• Our supporters! In addition to those of you who support us by attending this great festival we couldn’t do it without the support of our hosts at Langara and these other wonderful organizations: Amnesty International Canada; BCGEU; BCTF; CCEC Credit Union; Co-op Radio; CUPE BC; Georgia Straight; HEU; HSA; PSAC-BC; Ten Thousand Villages; The Tyee;  and the VDLC!

Please join us and bring your friends to #codevff!
We’ve been doing this for over ten years but it’s our first year with a #hashtag!

Win a trip to Latin America with CoDevelopment Canada!

That’s right, we’re holding a draw for our members*.  Starting February 10th you can enter a draw for one great prize – a spot on one of our delegations in 2013 to Latin America. Draw tickets are $20 each and there is no limit on entries per person! The winner will be drawn at the CoDev & Café Ético open house in December 2012 (exact date TBD).

The value of this amazing experience? Approximately $3,000!

*Not a member? Become a member today and then enter the draw!  To enter please call the CoDev office at 604.708.1495 x112 or email us!

You must be 18 years or older to enter.  Draw is only open to CoDev members! Interested in more fine print? Full terms & conditions here for you to read.

In December 2011, CoDev coordinated a Canadian teachers’ delegation to Colombia. In the following article BC Teachers’ Federation provincial executive member Rick Guenther writes of his experiences during the delegation.

I can only begin to imagine life as a union leader in which I regularly receive reports of murdered colleagues, frequently receive death threats, and require the constant presence of armed bodyguards. Yet this is the reality of many people, particularly trade unionists, in Colombia.

While various rebel groups, government forces, and paramilitary groups have been engaged in violent struggle for decades, most of the oppression of union and human rights activists has been perpetrated by the paramilitaries who do their dark work in complex, and for me, poorly understood, relationships with government officials and powerful business interests.

While violence is an inescapable theme in a country beset by civil strife, there clearly exists hope for a truly civil society reflected in the work carried out by many individuals and groups.

During a recent trip to Colombia to attend an Education International (EI) congress our CoDev delegation had opportunities to meet with many people to discuss education and human rights issues and to hear stories. Colombian teacher leaders summarized the effects of violence on their members but they focused more on enthusiastically describing BCTF supported initiatives to develop “pedagogical circles”. These authentic professional learning communities work to improve teaching through action research and philosophical reflection on the fundamental purposes of education. Hearing praise for BCTF contributions to these efforts reaffirms my belief and pride in the international work that we do.

We met with Domingo Ayala, president of ADEMACOR, the teachers’ union in Córdoba province. At least 95 ADEMACOR members have been assassinated since 1985, with 20 of those occurring in the last three years. Most murders were a direct consequence of the victims’ professional and community service.

Domingo has lived with death threats for 20 years and now is accompanied 24 hours a day by two armed bodyguards provided by the government.

The theme of intimidation was mirrored by the stories of Sergio, president of the faculty association at the University of Córdoba, who described the takeover of the university by the paramilitaries a few years ago. During that time, murders of faculty, staff, and students were used to exercise control of the university and suppress any opposition to the paramilitaries. Sergio also lives with bodyguards.

We also met Alirio from the CAJAR human rights lawyers’ collective, an organization leading the struggle to bring human rights violations to light, to prosecute and convict the violators, and to secure reparations for victims. He too lives with death threats and armed bodyguards.

The Hollywood horror movie details in the stories we heard could easily be passed off as exaggerations or inventions. However, as Alirio explained, amnesty laws that provided reduced sentences for paramilitary leaders who confess their crimes encouraged detailed descriptions of human rights abuses that corroborate the testimony of witnesses.

Psychologists tell us that when we are distant from situations, we tend to intellectualize circumstances more than when we directly face them. While I was “familiar” with statistical information regarding the troubles in Colombia, hearing first-hand narratives and wondering at the courage and commitment of those who seek the improvement of human rights was transformational.

What amazed me is the fact that, in spite of the personal dangers they face, these people continue their normal duties, as well as work for improvements in human rights and a more just society. Not surprisingly, the teachers whom I met believe that education is the key. This is indeed the pedagogy of the oppressed.

CoDev invites you to hear from Honduran teachers’ union member Dilcia Diaz, a coordinator with the CoDev supported Non-Sexist Pedagogy program.

Hear from a front line activist as she addresses the de facto government’s “shock therapy” tactics to privatize public education, the role of international financial institutions in dismantling Honduran teachers’ organizations and the new teaching practices COPEMH is developing to promote gender equity and democracy in Honduran classrooms.

Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway, Vancouver.

Sunday, February 5, 2012.  Doors at 5:30pm.  Free.

COPEMH’s Carolina Pineda introduces former Honduran President Mel Zelaya, ousted in June 2009 coup

COPEMH, a Honduran teachers’ union, has been at the forefront of the struggle to restore democracy in Honduras and its president Jaime Rodriguez, is the General Secretary of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a broad coalition of civil society organizations seeking to overturn the coup.

COPEMH also plays a key role in resisting efforts by the de facto regime to undermine Honduras’ public education system and dismantle the teachers’ organizations. The College has paid a heavy price for its resistance. At least ten teachers have been assassinated since the coup, dozens have been beaten and imprisoned, and hundreds dismissed. The de facto regime has also attempted to break the College financially by with-holding funds from membership dues and intervening in the teachers’ social security fund.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this amazing event and a huge thank you to the musicians who organized it!  If you have photos please email them to us and we’ll post them here!

Join Fraser Union, Solidarity Notes, and the Gram Partisans for an Evening of Music for Social Change!

Saturday, March 10, 2012
Doors at 7:30pm, Music at 8:00pm
St. James Community Square, 3214 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver

Tickets

• $20 General Admission
• $15 Student/senior/un-waged
• Kids under 12 free

To purchase:

• Call: 604.708.1495 x112
• Email: codev@codev.org
• Online via Brown Paper Tickets

Event hashtag: #music4bob

Proceeds from the event will support two of Bob’s Favourite Causes:

• CoDevelopment Canada
• Independent Jewish Voices

Inspiration

Having had some “down time” since the intensity of the young workers delegation to reflect on my experiences, I keep coming back to how inspirational our time in El Salvador was on a variety of levels. As a young worker myself, seeing the incredible work of a number of different youth and worker organizations across El Salvador was truly inspirational.

The National Secretary of the FMLN youth, a guerrilla resistance movement in El Salvador, who have successfully transitioned to a political party and elected their presidential candidate in the last election, shared with us the challenges the party faces but also the success they’ve had in involving youth in all levels of the party. We met with children of displaced FMLN rebels who, on their own, found the funding and resources to build and run a youth center in their remote rural community, and with urban youth in El Triunfo who have organized themselves and have enlisted the help of other youth to join them in community development projects.

We shared a meal with young ex-maquila (sweatshop) workers who told us of the abuse and injustice they faced in the factories and yet of their resolve to continue to fight for fair compensation. Members of a women’s organization proudly showed us their community gardens that they have used to feed their families and wider community despite challenging weather conditions. Inter-generational members of a rural health committee took us on a tour of their community to show the mapping they have done of health and sanitation challenges they face, as well as the gains they have made in the last year. All of these experiences were made possible by the inspirational staff at APSIES, one of CoDev’s Latin American Partners, who are supporting the groups to overcome the immense challenges they face.

Finally, I have been incredibly inspired by my peers on the delegation. They all left the comfort of their own communities and work to travel a great distance physically and culturally, many for the first time, yet despite this they all came with open hearts and minds, eager to learn from and share with everyone we met. Their insightful reflections at the end of our time in Honduras and El Salvador, and their ideas for action in their own lives and wider communities is truly inspirational and a reminder of the power of international solidarity.

Check out other posts from this delegation. While you’re at it, also check out this great blog from one of the participants, Rachel Albiez from the PSAC!